The Split: That Holy Thing, That Moment that would not have happened, would not have existed, had a label not realized that it could be That Holy Thing, or had the artists themselves not capitalized on such an opportunity and seized That Holy Thing by the scruff of its neck and droned the fuck out of it to pump out A Classic. It’s like a collaboration, but it’s really more than that. Two sides of a disc, separated by miles of geography and united by telepathic proximity. Yes, this is just a record, and yes these are two different people doing two different pieces of music, divided from one another — but that was before. “Split” describes a previous, past separation, but now, this is One. And so The Split, we realize, is actually not entirely split. It is The One. And perhaps it is better described as both — in terms of disparate styles, takes, approaches, and also as The Singularity, The Goal, The Ends that it most certainly is. This is The Split.
This example between Plankton Wat’s Dewey Mahood and Expo ‘70’s Justin Wright in particular plays into the paradoxical simultaneity of The Split better than others I’ve encountered of late. A glowing warmth / A frigid chill — environment. A crawl / A glide — movement. A collective ensemble / A solitary confinement — performance. “Faded Photographs” / “Subtle Afterthoughts” — an image. Mahood playing into an arranged band format with the lazy lope of drums and bass, long strides and deep breaths. It is a night drive, sadly serenaded by sharp electric guitar, trudging its way around a minor mode. Expo ‘70, Justin Wright, extending a drone out into the air like a limb or tree branch, a dead harmony discovering its life, softly breathing in and out, generating its own heat for survival against surrounding cold, as the bells of a clock tower chime the passing hours.
The two are brought together in sound and vision by Debacle Records’ Sam Melancon for what must be a wholly enveloping 12-inch experience, an experience that may be pre-ordered directly from the label as of today.
• Plankton Wat: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Plankton-Wat/147779105282709
• Expo ‘70: http://www.exposeventy.com
• Debacle Records: http://debaclerecords.com
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